I've just started out and I'm fighting Nazis in some desert ruins.

How do I even begin to strategise? It appears that the enemies can see through walls. And also shoot through walls.

Why have walls in a game like this if they're not good for hard or soft cover? Might as well have placed me in the open desert.

What do I do? All I can do right now is keep trading shots until the enemies hopefully die first. That *can't* be it! Please tell me there is more to it.

Please help! I don't know what to do.

Sorry, dublicate.

Cover seems to work for me. Good cover is when you see a fully blue shield. Then you know your enemy's chance to hit you will be very low (but they can still hit). Soft or not so good cover is when you see a half blue shield. The enemy still has a reduced chance to hit but you're not as well protected as in full cover. Then there is wall cover, where you see a blue wall icon. This means the enemy cannot hit you from that side of cover. You're safe there.

However any type of cover doesn't mean you're invulnerable in that spot. The enemy can flank you and still hit you. So if they come up behind you or to the side of you that is exposed, they will hit. So you have to take note of which sides are exposed and where the enemy might come from. A good strategy I like to use is to attack first and then fall back into cover so the enemy would have less movement options to flank me. Hope this helps!

Thank you!

I'll see about trying it again. For the moment I got a little too frustrated. Flanking me I can fully support and understand, but it seems they can already hit me easily just by shooting diagonally at me. Through what appears to be multiple layers of obstructions or walls. I think, I really don't seem to feel that kind of battle/combat.

Might give it another go, someday.

I think I understand it now. Somehow, I guess it's with me. The problem. I can't warm up to this. It feels kind of forced to me. My brain insists on "You're in cover, if they can hit you just because they stand slightly to the left or right, the laws of physics are broken". I know that's probably ignorance on my part. I'm not playing this anymore.. not good for my continued health. ;) Sorry.
But thanks for addressing my concern.

From my understanding, cover still "works" even when they shoot at you diagonally with respect to your covered direction, just not as effectively -- and less and less effectively as the enemy unit gets closer to flank you.

Of course, being covered on both sides solves it and you get full benefits for your cover type.